Nursing Homes: A vacation from summer boredom

Throughout the year, the 172 residents of St. Barnabas Nursing Home in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, enjoy the visits and entertainment programs presented by schools, scout groups, choirs, dance ensembles and others who share their time and talents with the elderly. Something is always going on. But, as summer approaches, this bustle naturally slows down--children are on school break so intergenerational activities stop, many entertainers take a summer hiatus, and volunteer activities decline.

Summer months can be very boring in a nursing home. Because these visits and special events have decreased, residents find their daily interactions limited to staff encounters. To help relieve this monotony, we dedicated June as "Imagination Vacation" month. Our newsletter invited residents to "learn fun facts, sample foods, sit back and enjoy the ride." We packed our imaginary suitcases and went on a virtual tour of 12 states--from A(rizona) to V(ermont). The itinerary's grand finale was a weeklong celebration of the history and attractions of our home state--Pennsylvania.

As with any vacation, preparation is key to an enjoyable trip. Before going on "vacation," I collected music, trivia, posters, postcards, videos and general information related to our destinations. Indigenous food and beverages were ordered, and a lot of time was spent poring through activity catalogs and purchasing local resources, whether focusing on trivia, games or music that would add a coordinating dimension to the activity. Networking with other activities professionals is also very helpful when undertaking a multilevel activity such as Imagination Vacation. Throughout the year, I collect interesting or pertinent material that I find or that staff members gather in their travels. These items are then sorted and cataloged in binders. These binders also serve as idea banks for programs on the drawing board and keep us from reinventing the wheel whenever a program is repeated.

St. Barnabas' staff and its volunteers also enthusiastically contributed to the arsenal of vacation props and materials. Because we function as a therapeutic recreation department, our activities are structured to target the various physical and emotional needs of our residents. To avoid the humdrum, we adapt favorite activities (such as bingo, craft projects and singalongs) to fit into themed programs like Imagination Vacation. In this way, residents can still enjoy their favorite activities, but with a refreshing slant. For instance, instead of playing classic bingo, during "vacation" month we play Jingo, a stylized bingo game that comes in many versions, including weather, holidays, animals and, for our purpose, United States themes.

Because "travelers" are elderly, each vacation needs to be a multisensory event. For example, residents with low vision benefit from sensory activities that focus more on sound, touch or smell. When discussing vacations, residents were asked questions such as, "What do you remember about getting ready for a vacation?" Then, a suitcase was made available to touch and a camera to pack, along with other travel-related items. Then, to get in a vacation spirit, each resident had his or her picture taken for a "passport." Inside this travel document are questions such as where the resident would like to travel, when she would like to leave, how long she would like to stay and who she'd like to take along.

Although some activities were unique to a particular destination, each vacation included a singalong, craft project, discussion material and a movie or travelogue that related to the particular state. Nearly every vacation also incorporated a food activity, such as making "Mississippi Mud Pies" or sampling Vermont's maple sugar candies.

One employee, originally from Colorado, had her family there send a package of regional goodies, including cacti, postcards and cactus jelly for sampling. Other information was provided on Colorado's history and attractions. That evening, residents enjoyed a video called Train Ride to Pike's Peak. Every Friday, St. Barnabas has a happy hour with beverages, but during our visit to Colorado, happy hour became "The Taste of the Rockies."

From there, our troupe headed west to Nevada. Of course, the preferred activity there was to try to break the bank in the "casino," transformed from our dining room. Staff and volunteers had collected pennies for a while, so they could stake each resident with some cash to try and beat the house. Each table featured a casino game, such as roulette and blackjack. After the residents played for a while, the game--not the residents--rotated to a different table to reduce the confusion of moving residents in wheelchairs. When the casino closed, residents "cashed out" their pennies. If someone survived the tables with five pennies, he or she received a nickel. If there was a big winner with 25 pennies, a quarter went into his or her pocket. The day was capped off with the showing of Chevy Chase's Vegas Vacation.

Later in the month during our Texas sojourn, residents were treated to "A Night at the Alamo," where they enjoyed the flavors and aromas of a real Texas barbecue on the facility grounds and sang cow boy songs like "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."

After exploring western states, our travelers headed back East. Maine is a great fishing venue and, to tie-in with this attraction, our music therapist Ingrid Kronenberg developed a musical fishing program. Cutout fish shapes were created, and each fish had the name of a song written on it. Then, a magnet or Velcro strip was attached to a set of fishing rods and on the fish. The idea was to "reel" in your catch and then sing the song on the fish. This is a great activity because it not only stimulates memory, but it also makes use of fine-motor skills. Lower-functioning, less cognitively aware residents use the magnets, while others fish with the Velcro rods because it is more challenging than the magnets.

After stowing rods and reels and arriving in New York City, our residents became contestants on the St. Barnabas version of "Name That Tune," featuring Broadway hits. Kronenberg played a few notes, and the resident who correctly identified the song had to sing it, which led to a group discussion of the musical where it originated. This was a lot of fun for the residents, especially since one resident is an accomplished opera singer and could interpret the lyrics and offer information about the production.

At month's end, our Imagination Vacation wound up in Pennsylvania, our home state. Here we had the opportunity to actually leave the facility. Because it is handicap-accessible, the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center was an ideal place for residents to learn about our state s history, its various cultures and, perhaps, relive their younger days through the exhibits featuring life in the '50s and '60s. On another morning of Pennsylvania week, residents made candies and cookies from Hershey products and, in the evening, watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Throughout the week, they played Pennsylvania-related crossword puzzles and trivia games and ended this fun-packed month toasting their return home at the Pennsylvania happy hour.

Summer is gone now. The standard activities entertainment has resumed, the school children are back to visit, and volunteers abound. Residents are busy again. But now they, too, can reminisce about the sights, sounds, tastes and smells they experienced on their (imagination) vacations.

Pamela Dixon is recreation director at St. Barnabas Nursing Home. For more information, phone (724) 443-0700. To comment on this article, please send e-mail to dixon1002@nursinghomesmagazine.com.